19/03/2003 - UK Film Council earmarks Euros1.4m to encourage local distributors to release arthouse and foreign language titles countrywide

The UK Film Council today (Wednesday 19 March) launched its Specialised Films Print & Advertising (P&A) initiative, making £1m (Euros1.476m) available to distributors for them to increase the number of prints of specialised films across the UK and the advertising and promotion budgets for those films.
UK distributors can apply for those up-front subsidies from 24 March and the first films to be released with this support should reach the big screens in June 2003.
Pete Buckingham, who was appointed to lead the Distribution and Exhibition Fund last October, said: “Whether we are dealing with hits such as Talk To Her [+see also:
trailer
film profile] or smaller releases such as The Lawless Heart or Morvern Callar [+see also:
trailer
film profile], it is clear that increased support for the marketing and distribution of specialised films will bring benefits for filmmakers, distributors, exhibitors and audiences. Cinema is currently more popular in the UK than at any time in the past 30 years, but there is often only a very limited choice of film available to filmgoers at any one time, especially outside London. This initiative will give audiences across the country access to a much wider choice of UK and international films. "
According to a research undertaken by the FC, while US blockbusters are usually released with over 1,000 prints in the UK, larger specialised films in 70-or-so prints but foreign language films rarely go over 8-to-10 prints.
The Specialised P&A initiative is part of the FC’s new Distribution and Exhibition Fund launched a year ago which includes a whole range of measures aimed at supporting and stimulating the specialised distribution and exhibition sectors in the UK. Other initiatives include a Cinema Screen Fund of £14m (Euros20,667m) over a four-year period; a Digital Exhibition Fund of £1m (Euros1.476m) a year and an annual Cinema Education Fund, also of £1m (Euros1.476m).